A place where I document our way of living! Being a stay at home mom/photographer, we have lots of time to try out crafts and projects all day! We unschool our children and we love it!!! Having a web designer as a husband has given me the opportunity to document our fun on the internet! Check out our "against the grain" family as we pave our own path through life!

Against The Grain

Category Archives:Crafts

Homemade Clay Crafts Homemade clay is my new favorite thing to use cookie cutters for! When the kids want to cut out cookie shapes it is always sticky and messy and the shapes never come out right after baking them. (I am NOT a baker!) Then they want to use frosting and sprinkles but they never want to eat them. Then we have cookies sitting around for 2 weeks before we throw away all of those terribly decorated masterpieces! // This homemade clay is the perfect replacement for Read More

Elf on the Shelf Ideas Elf on the Shelf with Bible Verses: We have been doing elf on the shelf for years now. My original problem with elf on the shelf was telling my kids that an elf was watching them to be sure they are good. I want to teach my kids that Jesus is watching so be good all year! So, I use my elf on the shelf as a messenger for Jesus instead of Santa! The elf comes in December because we want to celebrate the birth of Jesus all month long. This is how I decided to integrate the Read More

Homemade Gift For Mom As my moms birthday approached this year I had the same problem I always have...You can't buy her anything because she has everything she could ever want! You can't buy her soaps and lotions because she makes her own all natural everything. She doesn't wear jewelry, doesn't carry a purse, she rarely paints her nails...she is way to easy going for a quick, standard female gift. So, I decided to make her something that she could use! Everyone loves a homemade gift! I Read More

How NOT To Act This Fathers Day Fair warning here...this is a rant. This is me telling you about something that pisses me off! Soo I'm scrolling through Pinterest checking out some step dad gifts for the kids to make for my husband....can I just say: If a child has a step dad it doesn't automatically mean they don't have a good real dad. Even if the child's real dad sucks at being a dad...making a craft stating that step dad is way better than real dad or thanking step dad for stepping Read More

Fathers Day Crafts It is time to get busy on your fathers day crafts! In our home we have 4 dads to make crafts for! I have Aaron's dad, Josh's dad, My husband who is also McKenzie's dad and McKenzie's step dad....so, we will be busy! We are big believers in celebrating every male who acts like daddy in their life! Yes, my husband will be involved in helping his daughter make a fathers day craft for her step father! Her step father raises her as if she was his own when my husband isn't there, Read More

What is a Mandala? Free Mandala coloring page below! A mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल, lit, circle) is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Indian religions, representing the universe. In common use, "mandala" has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the Read More

Diagonally Knit Blanket Squares Image Credit: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blanket-square-diagonal-garter-stitch // This is a great starter blanket! It is an easy knit blanket using garter or knit stitches! You can knit it one square at a time. It has basic knit stitches, a simple increase and a simple decrease. You can do as many colors as you want, as many squares as you want and use any size needles you want! As long as you use the same type of yarn and the same size Read More

Doc McStuffins Party Ideas // My step daughter loves Doc McStuffins! So I threw her an awesome Doc McStuffins Party. I had so much fun doing this party because I have boys. This is the first party I have ever thrown that consisted of pink and purple. So cute! I had to share these Doc McStuffins party ideas with you! Doc McStuffins Party Ideas: 1. Pin the band-aid on the booboo AKA pin the band-aid on Lamby! I got a white poster board from the dollar store and drew lamby on it. Simple! Read More

Knitted Flat Circle I searched high and low for a pattern to knit a flat circle. After going into my local knitting store and being told to knit wedges I decided I needed to figure this out on my own. I needed a circle, not a hexagon. I like the wedge design for many things but I don’t like the points it makes around the edges. So I played and played and here it finally is! // // The circle can be bigger or smaller by casting on more or less. Simply change each number in Read More

Oobleck When Josh told me he wanted to make Oobleck I thought he made up a weird word for something...then he taught me what Oobleck is and it is pretty cool! Oobleck is a type of non-Newtonian fluid. Most fluids we know of are considered Newtonian fluids. Non-Newtonian fluids are a strange and perplexing group of fluids. When a force (ex. poking, rolling, stirring) is applied to a non-Newtonian fluid, the viscosity (resistance to flow) of the fluid increases. Applying pressure to the Read More

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